Chicago Saloons and Starving Pimas
At a recent meeting of the Congregational Club of Chicago the general secretary gave some startling facts about Chicago saloons. Among other things, he said: "Thirty-one thousand inhabitants of Chicago—saloon proprietors, saloon porters, and bartenders—are making it their special business to ruin young men. The figures do not include gamblers nor any others who might be put in the same class. The daily receipts of the saloons alone were $316,000. In one saloon on Madison Street, connected with a theater, at 7 P. M. one Sunday there were counted 485 young men, and between 7 P. M. and 9 P. M. 524 more young men were seen to enter. Some of these were standing in a row six deep about a gambling table." THE aborigines of Arizona are in straitened circumstances; that is, many of them are starving. A despatch from Phoenix, dated June 28, says:— "Railroad men have been looking into the Pima Indian situation here, with a view of transporting a number of the starving Pimas to the vineyards about Fresno, Cal., where there is a scarcity of labor. S. M. McCowan, superintendent of the Phoenix Indian Industrial School, sent for the chiefs of the Maricopa and Pima tribes, who agreed to-day to permit as many as 400 or 500 Indians to leave the Gila reservation, and a still greater number might be induced to leave if employment and transportation were furnished and the experiment proves successful. H. P. Anewalt, of the Santa Fe Prescott and Phoenix Railroad, said to-night that the matter is practically settled here, and the scheme of putting Indians in the vineyards is up to the fruit-growers. They will be expected to provide transportation. It is not believed that there will be much danger of the Indians losing any part of the $30,000 appropriation made by Congress for their relief, as that sum could not permanently improve the condition of the Indians, and there would be an urgent call on the appropriation soon after the Indians' return from grape picking. Grape picking is not new to the Pimas, as a few of them have been employed in the vineyards here annually. They ask only small wages. They camp near their place of work, and it costs them little to live. They stand the heat well, and, it is said, can be depended upon to work almost as well as regular pickers." Now wait for the protest from "workingmen" who think it more honorable to lie idle than to work for small wages. THERE are now engaged in an incipient war with China, the governments of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Japan, and the United States. The war is supposed to be an uprising of an extensive secret society known as the Boxers, against all foreigners, whom they deem entirely too aggressive for the material interests of the natives. It is as yet uncertain whether the Chinese Government is covertly encouraging the movement or is simply unable to quell it. At all events the flags of all the nations mentioned have been planted on Chinese soil, and all of them are believers in the doctrine that where the flag is once planted it must remain. If they all maintain this theory, the foundation is already laid for a worse "perplexity" when China shall have been conquered than that which at present exists. A despatch from Consul Goodnow at Shanghai says of the situation at Pekin: "On the 27th there were two legations standing. The emperor and empress were prisoners in the palace. The city gates were closed. Prince Tuan and his force of 'Boxers' were in control of everything. Conditions of anarchy exist." As SHOWING the retrogression of Protestantism and the activity of Roman Catholicism, take the following from the Literary Digest: "The Old First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue and Eleventh Street, New York, which for some time has been struggling to raise an endowment fund that would enable it to maintain itself down-town, has just reported that this fund has now reached nearly $76,000. The same problem has confronted all the Protestant down-town churches, owing to the up-town trend of population. The Roman Catholic Church of the Transfiguration, where Dr. De Costa lately lectured on the subject, 'From Canterbury to Rome,' was once an Episcopal Church, and Dr. De Costa called attention to the fact that since the Roman Catholics moved in, no less than twelve Protestant churches had abandoned the densely populated district comprised within a radius of five blocks. The Episcopal Church of the Ascension, which is doing a widely useful institutional work in the region below Washington Square, is also making a strenuous effort to raise an endowment fund in order to maintain itself in its present location for all time." LADY CURZON, wife of the Viceroy of India, writes to the Chicago Relief Committee as follows: "The famine is greater in its intensity over the areas afflicted than at any previously recorded visitation. Fewer persons will die, yet incomparably more persons are suffering. The absolute failure of the two last autumn and spring harvests and the unprecedented loss of cattle in western and central India, make the task of recuperation more arduous than on any previous occasion. The government has reduced the rate of mortality, and even in the worst districts the figures show only a slight excess over the normal rate. The government has spent $26,000,000 upon direct relief, $10,000,000 upon suspensions and remissions of land revenue, $6,000,000 upon advances for the purchase of seed and cattle, and $5,000,000 upon loans to the distressed States. The relief committee has distributed $2,500,000 through various channels." A LATE despatch from Moscow indicates a financial pressure in Russia. It says: "The Boxer troubles in China and the death of Count Muravieff have greatly accentuated the difficulties of the financial situation in Russia, which is in such a critical state as to arouse the gravest anxiety. The black list of good firms failing, lengthens, and the sense of insecurity and fear that something worse is to come has caused vast sums to be temporarily withdrawn from the market. In Moscow alone, within two months, it is stated on good authority, 820,000,000 roubles, most of which was previously in currency, have been lodged in the Imperial Bank, without interest, for safety." THE news from China is very indefinite, especially as to affairs in the capital. June 18, Baron von Ketteler, the German minister, was shot by a mob while going to the rooms of the Tsung Li Yamen, and died soon afterward. All the legations, except the German, British, and Italian, had been destroyed at that date. The diplomats and missionaries were at the British legation, covered by cannon. It was estimated that at least fifty thousand troops would be necessary in order to relieve them. Germany will demand "full satisfaction," which will probably mean a large bit of territory—all that the other powers will permit. The emperor is preparing to send 20,000 troops and five battle-ships to the Orient. The United States force in China is to be 14,000 men. The transport Grant, with reinforcements, is now on the way with 32 officers and 1,347 men, under command of General Chaffee. Other powers will send armies and navies in proportion to their interests or ambitions. The outlook indicates complications such as few, if any, people yet comprehend. BEFORE rushing off to Cape Nome, it might be well to consider this from a correspondent: "Five vessels lost in the rush for gold is the history of disaster thus far at Nome. Thousands of dollars' worth of property has been destroyed, and hundreds of prospectors are without means of pursuing fortune. The gold diggings are in a state of anarchy, and property in and about Nome is held only at the muzzle of a gun. Three steamers—the Roanoke, Santa Ana, and Ohio—have reached the diggings from Seattle with smallpox on board, and two are quarantined with their passengers at Egg Island. . . . Dishonest men may thrive, and the lawless will make money. Everything within 100 miles of Nome has been taken up, and claims are being sold and resold by the so-called real estate agents. If a man has a house, he must stay home and take care of it; otherwise he will lose it. There may be lots of gold there, but I fail to see how the newcomer is going to get it." Two MEN of Los Angeles, Cal., have succeeded in going into Yosemite Valley in an automobile. The San Francisco Chronicle says: "The distance from Raymond to the valley via Wawona is seventy miles, and an elevation of 5,000 feet must be overcome. At some portions of the road there is a grade of nearly 20 per cent. The better part of two days is consumed by the regular stages, on the trip. This automobile, which was driven by steam generated by the use of gasoline as fuel, made the entire distance in eight hours and eighteen minutes actual running time, and with a total consumption of only eight gallons of liquid. Grades which the four-horse stages can not traverse at a gait exceeding three miles an hour, were covered by the automobile at eight miles an hour, with considerable reserve power left." A SEATTLE, Wash., despatch of the 1st inst. says that three tons of gold arrived that day from Alaska, on two steamers. Of this $600,000 was consigned to the United States assay office by the Canadian Bank of Commerce at Dawson, and $500,000 represented the clean-up of the T. S. Lippy mines. Lest people become over-impressed by the glowing accounts of gold coming out of these northern mines, it would be well for them to consider the enormous sums carried in by the gold-seekers, and spent for passage and outfits to make the trip. A good proportion of the comparatively few fortunes made there are from the money carried in and spent by people who come out with less than they took in. EARLY in the morning of June 30 a terrible fire broke out on the Hoboken, N. J., docks. The fire originated in a pile of cotton, then communicated with a lot of whisky, which exploded, sending the flames in all directions. Three large North German Lloyd Company steamers were burned to the water's edge. Docks, warehouses, and great stores of merchandise were destroyed; also twelve canal boats and six barges. Estimates of losses run as high as $10,000,000. But the worst was the loss of life, the latest estimate we have being 326. Probably the exact number never will be known. A GREAT storm in the northeastern part of Nebraska, June 27, swept over a region one hundred miles square, and immense damage was done in the aggregate. At Wakefield two residences and several barns were wrecked. All through the storm-swept section windmills and outbuildings were destroyed. ESTIMATING from vessels arrived and on the way June 15, there were 30,000 miners at Cape Nome July 1. When the Zealandia (which arrived at San Francisco June 29) left the cape, newcomers were all in a quandary because of the wholesale jumping of claims, and serious trouble was expected. THE through passenger service of the Santa Fe Railroad system, over its own tracks, between Chicago and San Francisco, was inaugurated on the first inst. The western land terminal is at Point Richmond, on the east side of San Francisco Bay, connecting with the city by ferry. A FIRE in Colusa Co., Cal., on the 1st inst. swept over a track of land eight by twelve miles in extent. About fifteen thousand acres of grain and several buildings on the Evans tract were destroyed. THE World's Woman's Temperance Union Congress, in session at Edinburgh, June 26, re-elected Lady Henry Somerset as president.